Archie Bell&nbsp;is comprised of interviews conducted by Houston entrepreneur, DJ, and filmmaker Flash Gordon Parks with 5th Ward living legend Archie Bell of Archie Bell &amp; the Drells. Songs from the Drells include the sublime 1968 track “Tighten Up,” one of the earliest funk hits in music history. Bell moved to Houston when he was a toddler with his family and began singing at the age of five in church in Houston's 5th Ward. While attending E.O. Smith Junior High School, Bell formed the group, The Drells, who started out playing neighborhood dances and sock hops. Bell has said that the spoken word intro to “Tighten Up,” was in response to a DJ’s assertion, after President Kennedy’s assassination, that nothing good came out of Texas.

Archie Bell

F*cked Like a Star was shot in Haiti and New Orleans with a macro lens intended for shooting tiny subjects like ants. Focused on skillful traditional “woman’s work” - braiding, cooking, sewing, the audience is meant to see their work as an ant would, highlighting the majesty of what is normally thought of as mundane, repetitive labor. The film is an experimental adaptation of an extract from Toni Morrison’s 1981 novel, Tar Baby; a story that explores sexual and racial tensions associated with an individual’s journey to autonomy. Saintonge’s film takes inspiration from Morrison’s passage about the work of ants, which—like the work of women—often goes unnoticed.

F*cked Like a Star

Musical legends Ray Charles, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin often performed at the hottest nightclub in Houston’s 5th Ward. Club Matinee was known as “the Cotton Club of the south” by musical legends and area residents alike. Now a short new documentary,&nbsp;Memory Builds the Monument, taps the recollections of current and former 5th Ward residents who remember those magical years.The film is directed by award winning filmmaker Isaac Yowman and produced with 5th Ward native and renowned artist Mel Chin, filmmaker Greg Carter and producer Miriam Heads. The primary people interviewed for the film are 5th Ward natives and well-known in their own rights. They include Archie Bell, Founding Member of the R&amp;B group Archie Bell &amp; the Drells; Algenita Davis, Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity Houston; Rev. Harvey Clemons, pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church; and Jesse Lott, who was recently named the Texas state three-dimensional artist of 2022.

Memory Builds the Monument

Artistic Director Jessica Green engages in conversation with the four filmmakers of the Fifth Ward, Invention, Modernism Virtual Program; Stefani Saintonge, Flash Gordon Parks, Isaac Yowman, and Miriam Heads.

Fifth Ward, Invention, Modernism: Virtual Panel Discussion

Fifth Ward, Invention, Modernism

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